Consumer Privacy Under PIPEDA: How Are We Doing?

Author

John Lawford

Organization

Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

Published

2004

Summary

This report assesses the efficacy to date of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and identifies significant gaps and grey areas in the data protection regime, from the consumer perspective.
All relevant findings of the Privacy Commissioner to the end of October 2004 were considered to create an update, nearly four years after implementation of PIPEDA, on how it protects consumer privacy in the marketplace. As a practical exercise, this report revisits the targets of complaints filed by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against major corporations for not properly obtaining consent to secondary marketing. This analysis shows continuing problems with these corporations' use of “implied consent” obtained by “opt-out” mechanisms.

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English only

OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database